A Hands-Off Look at L.A. Noire’s Hard-Boiled Detective Stories

NEW YORK — World War II just ended. Hollywood is booming. Life seems to be good in downtown Los Angeles, except for all those pesky murders.

Rockstar Games is known for publishing open-world games in a variety of settings and time periods, from the totally ’80s Vice City to Red Dead Redemption‘s Old West. So it makes sense that L.A. Noire, the company’s next title, is set in 1947 Los Angeles.

Still, the game, coming to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this spring (and “hopefully” to PC in the future, according to a Rockstar rep), stands apart from the rest of the developer’s action-oriented lineup.

L.A. Noire is a detective story.

When I headed to Rockstar’s New York City offices Wednesday to check out the game, the representatives said I couldn’t touch the controller. I briefly considered grabbing their PlayStation 3 and making a run for it, but they outnumbered me three-to-one, so I was forced to sit and watch as Rockstar showed me one of L.A. Noire‘s cryptic cases.

Playing as fedora-topped detective Cole Phelps (voiced by and bearing a terrifying resemblance to Aaron Staton, who plays Ken Cosgrove in Mad Men), you’ll solve your way through about two dozen cases within the City of Angels. This might seem like well-trodden ground to Rockstar fans, but Phelps is nothing like John Marston or Niko Bellic: L.A. Noire is about investigation and interrogation, not brawls or shootouts.

Granted, the 45 minutes of gameplay I watched included a car chase, a fistfight and a fast-paced shootout atop the scaffolds of an old movie set. But unlike Rockstar’s previous games, L.A. Noire focuses on cold, hard detective work, letting action and exploration take the backseat.

Blood on the Silver Screen

Hollywood is the backdrop in “Fallen Idol,” a case in the game that revolves around an attempted double-murder involving a sketchy film producer with reputed ties to the mob. Somebody tried to kill two actresses by sabotaging their car, and it’s up to Phelps to figure out whodunit. We start off at the scene of the crash, where Phelps can unlock clues by talking to the women and finding evidence around the crime scene. He can also discover new locations in which to continue the investigation.

The case eventually leads Phelps to a movie prop store, where he can interrogate the owner and look for incriminating evidence. Finding the right clues can open up new questions to spring at the prop man, who inevitably reveals that he knows more than he’s been sharing. I won’t spoil too much, but there’s some blackmail, some molestation and even some homemade pornography. It’s lurid stuff.

In the climactic shootout, you’ll use a Grand Theft Auto-like cover mechanic to fire at marauding mobsters. You can pick up their guns and blow up exploding barrels as you climb through the ladders and scaffolds that make up the movie’s set pieces.

Sadly, Rockstar’s reps turned off the game just before I could watch the ending of “Fallen Idol,” saying they wouldn’t want to spoil things for me. Jerks.

Liar, Liar

No detective story would be complete without a variety of seedy witnesses, and L.A. Noire is packed full of them. Thanks to the game’s phenomenal MotionScan technology, every actor’s face is conveyed with near-perfect accuracy, allowing for a level of facial acting that feels very close to real life.

This facial performance is particularly essential in a game like L.A. Noire, because your job is to figure out whether each witness is telling you the truth. After hearing a given statement, you can choose one of three options: Believe the witness and coax him into unveiling more information, doubt him and try to force out the truth or contradict the witness’ lies with a piece of evidence.

Pick the right option and you could discover more details about the case; guess wrong and you might have to look elsewhere. Although there’s no way to get stuck in an unwinnable situation, poor interrogation choices might make your life more difficult by forcing you to hunt down info in new ways. You might be forced to repeat action sequences or car chases if you fail, but you’ll never have to leave a case unsolved.

L.A. Noire feels like the illicit child of Grand Theft Auto IV and an old point-and-click adventure game. Sounds great on paper, but will it be fun to play? That depends. The Ace Attorney series works as well as it does because of its engaging writing and memorable characters, and L.A. Noire will have to follow suit. After all, detective work is only enjoyable if you care about the case you’re solving.